Class Reunion Guide
College Reunion Planning: Working With (and Around) the Alumni Office
College reunions are a hybrid: the alumni association runs an official program and your class committee runs the things that actually feel like a reunion. The dance is figuring out how those two layers fit together - which events the school covers, which you organize, how the donor-ask fits, and how the fraternity-sorority-team sub-reunions plug into the weekend without splitting your crowd.
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How a college reunion differs from a high school one
A high school class is a couple hundred people from one geographic area. A college class might be 500-3,000 graduates dispersed across the country - sometimes the world. The class is bigger but friend-cluster identification is easier, because graduates remember dorms, majors, sports teams, and Greek houses. People came in already self-grouped.
The other big difference: the school cares more. Colleges with active alumni-relations programs view every reunion as a fundraising and engagement touchpoint, and they invest staff time in helping it succeed. They'll provide a registration system, send mass emails on your behalf, hold a campus reception, and give you data on who's coming. In exchange, the development office expects to make an organized class-gift ask. Plan around that, not against it.
Class reunions use slightly different vocabulary - committee, classmates, alumni - but the underlying tools (RSVPs, payment collection, schedule, shared dashboard) match what Reunly was built for. See Reunly pricing for committee-sized accounts.
Working with the alumni association
Find your class's "reunion liaison" in the alumni-relations office. Larger schools have a dedicated staffer per milestone year. Smaller schools share one person across multiple class committees. Your kickoff call should establish:
- ✓What the alumni association runs - which receptions, tours, services, and meals are paid for and organized by the school
- ✓What the class committee runs - typically the Friday class dinner, Saturday after-party, and any class-specific programming
- ✓Whether the alumni database can be shared with the committee or whether the school sends emails on your behalf (the latter is more common at large universities)
- ✓What the registration system is - most schools require attendees to register through the alumni portal first, with class events as add-ons
- ✓What the class gift target is and who the class-gift chair is - separate from your committee but coordinating
Reunion weekend tie-ins and the homecoming question
About a third of US colleges anchor reunion to homecoming weekend in October or November. The other two-thirds run a separate reunion weekend in late May or early June after commencement. Each shapes your weekend differently:
Either way, lock the hotel block 12 months out. The alumni office often pre-negotiates a block your committee can publicize, but those rooms release back to general inventory 4 months out if not booked. Push your classmates to book early.
Frat, sorority, and team sub-reunions
The greek-letter chapter, sports team, or activity group sub-reunion is part of a healthy reunion weekend, not a competitor to it. Treat sub-reunions as parallel events your committee coordinates loosely with - share dates, share venues if it helps, share the master classmate roster.
The typical Friday flow at a large university: chapter dinners and team gatherings at 6-8pm at the house or a nearby restaurant, then the all-class reception at 9pm. People drift between groups naturally. Don't schedule the all-class event over the chapter dinner - you'll fragment your attendance.
Each chapter or team typically has a designated reunion organizer - the alumni-relations office can put you in touch. A 30-minute call with each one in your first month of planning prevents most scheduling collisions.
The donor-ask dynamic
The development office wants reunion weekend to convert into giving. Your committee may or may not want to be part of that. Both positions are legitimate. Decide early which one you're taking:
- ✓Active partnership - the class committee promotes the class-gift goal alongside event RSVPs. The class-gift chair gets time at the Saturday dinner. Participation rates are higher.
- ✓Visible separation - the class committee runs the events, the development office runs the giving campaign. Both happen at the same weekend but neither bleeds into the other.
- ✓Quiet coordination - the committee doesn't promote the gift but does share the registration list and let the development office reach attendees through their own channels.
Whatever you choose, communicate it to attendees before the event so they aren't surprised. The worst-case scenario is a paid attendee being cornered at the bar by a development officer they didn't expect.
A typical reunion-weekend schedule
Need a venue for the Saturday class dinner near a major college town? The Boston and Philadelphia venue lists include private dining rooms that fit a 50-200 person class dinner.
For a step-by-step planning checklist, the full 12-month checklist structure works for class reunions of any size.
Run your college class events in Reunly
A shared committee dashboard for the Friday reception, the class dinner, the after-party, and the Sunday brunch - with RSVPs and payments tracked in one place. The weekend-agenda template is a good starting point.
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Frequently asked questions
Does the college's alumni association run the reunion or do we?
Both. Most colleges with formal reunion-weekend programs (Williams, Princeton, Notre Dame, the SEC schools, etc.) have an alumni-relations team that runs the official program: the all-class reception, the campus tours, the football game block, the chapel service. Self-organized class parties happen alongside - your committee plans the Friday-night class dinner and the Saturday after-party at the venue of your choice. The alumni office will share the registration list with the class committee in nearly every case. At schools with smaller or no alumni-weekend program, your committee runs everything.
How do reunion-weekend logistics work alongside homecoming?
About a third of colleges anchor reunion weekend to homecoming weekend - the Saturday football game becomes the centerpiece. The other two-thirds use a separate reunion weekend in May or early June. Find out which your school does at least 12 months out, because hotel blocks fill faster on football weekends. If reunion is tied to homecoming, the alumni association usually reserves a tailgate area for each milestone class and your committee just needs to organize food and drinks within that footprint.
Should we coordinate frat or sorority sub-reunions?
Yes - and treat them as separate events your committee facilitates rather than runs. Greek-letter organizations often hold their own gatherings at the chapter house or a nearby restaurant Friday night. Coordinate timing so members can attend both: chapter dinner at 6, class reception at 9, for instance. The alumni-relations office at most schools maintains a list of Greek-house contacts who can help reach members through their own channels.
How does the alumni-donor ask interact with the reunion?
At schools with active development offices, every reunion is paired with a class-gift fundraising campaign - the school sets a class-gift target and a class-participation target (percentage of alumni who give any amount). Some classmates resent being asked, others lead the asking. Make this dynamic visible early. Decide whether your committee wants to publicize the class-gift goal or stay separate from it. Either is fine - what's not fine is letting the development office surprise classmates with an ask at the reception they paid to attend.
How do we find classmates who fell off social media?
Start with the alumni database - the development office holds the most current address list because it's used for fundraising. Cross-reference with LinkedIn for adults over 30. Ask known classmates to identify who they're still in touch with. Greek-letter organizations and team rosters surface clusters of friends who can find each other. The last 10-15% typically requires paid people-search tools (Spokeo, BeenVerified) at $4-6 per lookup. Plan three months for this work before invitations go out.
Related guides
One workspace for the class committee
RSVPs, payments, schedule, and the classmate roster - shared with everyone running the weekend.